The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c9.8

c9.8

Thus the bráhman or, in Renou's apt phrase, the "énergie connective comprimée en énigmes," which keeps the cosmos from disintegrating or restores it, resides in the antithetical formulation, not in the explicit definition of the connection, the *bandhu*, which remains essentially enigmatic. This "énergie" is heightened by the two parties, who by their exchange of enigmatic challenges and rejoinders enact the antithesis. Its substance is not enunciation, but silence — the silence, as Renou observes, of the officiant called *brahmán*, who also brings the brahmodya of the horse sacrifice to its end. The culminating point is the moment of truth, when silence prevails between the partners.¹³